GOP report marks reform's anniversary

House Republican Leader John Boehner is marking the 90-day anniversary of health care reform with a 43-page report "designed to chronicle ObamaCare’s three-month journey from hype to harsh reality."

The document outlines problems that Republicans say have been exacerbated or created by the reform law and forms the basis of their argument that the law should be repealed and replaced.

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“Public calls for repeal of the new law are rising – and Republicans are on offense, calling attention to steadily mounting evidence that President Obama’s massive health care law is raising health care costs and crushing small business job creation at a time when the American economy can least afford it,” the report says.

Although the GOP report says the "American people remain squarely opposed" to the health care reform bill, polls continue to show that the country is evenly divided on it. A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted earlier this month found that 50 percent of respondents favored repealing the health care overhaul. But a new USA Today/Gallup poll out this week shows that 49 percent of respondents think passage of the bill was "a good thing," while only 46 percent say it was "a bad thing."

The GOP report, due out today, is largely a collection of government reports and news clippings, and it outlines key areas in which Democrats have made promises about what health care reform would be able to do, such as creating jobs and allowing people to stay on their current plan and with their current doctors if they’d like.

Shortly after the reform bill became law, several large companies said they’d have to record one-time charges to account for the financial hit they expect to take. In addition, interim regulations from the administration have concluded that within three years, about 51 percent of workers could end up seeing their plans change and become subject to new restrictions in the reform law.

Obama has cautioned in the past that the reform law wouldn’t be a magic bullet. Significant portions of the law won’t be implemented until 2014, when insurance exchanges are set up and tax credits are made available to help people buy insurance. By 2014, nearly all Americans will be required to carry health insurance as well.

House Democrats responded with a report of their own in which they attempt to debunk the GOP claims, accusing the Republicans of “selectively stringing together old news articles, out-of-context quotes, right-wing conspiracies and debunked claims.”

“I’m surprised there are not more pictures or cartoons in here, that’s how ridiculous this taxpayer-funded pamphlet of misinformation and lies is,” said Doug Thornell, spokesman for Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “House Republicans haven’t been honest with the American people on health reform for almost two years.”

The Democrats’ reponse cites numerous FactCheck.org articles disproving common arguments made against the reform law.

“The legislative debate is over, but the false and exaggerated claims just keep on coming,” FactCheck wrote in April. “We’ve seldom seen a piece of legislation so widely misrepresented, and misunderstood, as the new health care law. We stopped counting the number of articles and items we turned out on the subject after the total reached 100.”